Barcelona launches Historic Novel festival

Barcelona Novel·la Històrica

Lindsey Davis

As part of the year-long celebrations leading up to the 300th anniversary of September 11th, 1714 next year, Barcelona has created a special literary event dedicated to this historical novel. Following in the footsteps of the very popular Crime Novel Festival, BCNegra, which takes place each February, this new festival will bring authors of the genre from around the world, organise related activities and award a prize to a leading exponent of the historic novel.

For its inaugural event, the winner of the Premi Internacional Barcino de Novel·la Històrica (Barcino was the name given to the Roman town established here in Classical times) is British author Lindsey Davis, the creator of the Roman-times detective, Marius Didius Falco. To tie in with her award, there will be a special city tour of the landmarks that real-life 'contemporaries' of Falco would have seen had they lived in or visited Barcino.

Other authors who will participate in the event are Edward Rutherford (author of historical novels set in different cities, including London, Dublin and New York), Alfred Bosch (the Catalan independence politician and author of books such as Les Set Aromes del Món (The Seven Aromas of the World) and L'Atles Furtiu) and Catalan writer Albert Sánchez Piñol, who has written an award-winning series about the events of September 1714.

Barcelona Novel·la Històrica, November 11th to 16th. Born Cultural Centre. Find more details in English here (Ajuntament website).